Chapter 59: 31

Chapter 31: Preparations Before the March

"The generals of the army? Are you telling me my father is a general in the army?" Erwin asked with a stunned expression.

"That's right. Master Friar is the general of the army's right branch for this battle. Were you not aware of this, Young Master?" The butler was also quite surprised by the fact that Erwin was oblivious to this.

"I've been too busy these past few days, so I haven't had a chance to speak with Father," Erwin replied with a resigned expression, then asked. "Who are the other generals of the army?"

"His Majesty will be leading the army's central branch in person, while the general of the left branch will be Governor Jenkins," the butler replied.

Erwin nodded in response. "Alright, you can go now."

After the butler departed, Erwin opened the envelope before reading through the letter inside.

In his letter, Count Friar quickly glossed over the fact that he had been assigned the role of the general of the army's right branch. In contrast, he gave Erwin a much more detailed account of the manor's assets and the money they had available, as well as where the money and assets were being stored. He also offered Erwin some encouragement, for assembling his own mercenary legion, and at the end of the letter, he extended some words of caution toward Erwin, telling him to be careful on the battlefield.

Erwin was rather exasperated after reading the letter, and he couldn't understand why his father had left him something like this. 

Why did he list the manor's assets and funds in such fine detail? It's not like he's not coming back. 

He was feeling a little melancholy as he returned to his own room, then took a glance at the setting sun through the window before beginning to pack up his luggage. The first things that he packed were the two books, "Laws of Time and Space" and "A Discussion on the Ultimate Damage of Magic", followed by his autumn and winter clothes, which he pulled out of his wardrobe.

"I wonder if Professor Hawk is going to the front lines as well," Erwin mused to himself as he looked at the two books. Ever since the commencement of the Pillow Sword Tournament, he had either been injured or extremely busy. Thus, it had been quite a long time since he was last scolded by Professor Hawk, and for some reason, he missed the experience a little.

Erwin's original plan was to pack up his belongings, then go straight to bed, but after hearing what the butler had to say just now, he felt like there was a need to go to the horse farm outside the city in order to establish a closer bond with his troops as the mercenary legion's deputy commander.

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By the time he arrived at the horse farm, he discovered that the horse farm had already been transformed into the encampment for the Four Winds mercenary legion. All of the tents had already been set up, and many fires had already been lit. Legs of lamb were being roasted over the fires, and beer was naturally flowing freely as well.

Everyone immediately raised their cups for a toast upon seeing their deputy legion commander arrive on horseback, and Larwood and the others also came out to greet Erwin.

"So I've been running myself ragged all day, while you're here drinking the night away?" Erwin was not very pleased.

"We were waiting for you!" Chase replied with a smile. "Larwood was going to deliver an address, but I insisted on waiting for you so that the two commanders of our mercenary legion can speak together."

"I have nothing to say. I'm happy to follow the arrangements of Commander Larwood," Erwin said as he picked up a bottle of freshly opened rum from the ground before taking a swig from it.

"That's not gonna work. Larwood is too nervous to speak unless you're with him," Kaiba chuckled.

"By the way, did you deliver the flag to the department of military affairs, Larwood?" Erwin asked.

"I did! I did ages ago! Stop pestering me about it!" Larwood complained.

Erwin made his way over to Larwood while carrying his bottle of rum, and the two touched their bottles together, following which Erwin asked in a quiet voice, "Seeing as you've been to the department of military affairs, I'm sure you've asked about how many mercenary legions have registered in total, right? Also, roughly how many people does each legion have?"

"That's something I was going to discuss with you in further detail tonight," Larwood replied in a quiet voice.

Erwin nodded in response.

After that, Erwin and his friends instructed all of the mercenary legion's 500 troops to gather together. Once everyone was assembled, Larwood jumped onto a horse-drawn cart, then began to deliver a rousing speech that set everyone's hearts alight. They were so spurred on by his inspiring speech that they wanted nothing more than to teleport to the front lines to fight the Skycourt Kingdom's troops right away! In short, Larwood's rather crude attempt to rally the troops proved to be a resounding success.

With the inspirational speech out of the way, it was time to set some ground rules. With that in mind, Erwin made his way over to Lanyon, then instructed him to draft up a set of rules and regulations as soon as possible.

That night, Erwin and his friends gathered together in Larwood's tent, and all of them wore grim expressions.

"I asked about the other mercenary legions at the department of military affairs today, and the largest of them have 3,000 people, but there are only one or two mercenary legions of that scale. There are close to 10 mercenary legions with 1,000 people, and the few dozen remaining mercenary legions each have several hundred people," Larwood said.

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"Woah, so in total, there are around 30,000 mercenaries being deployed by the kingdom for this battle, right?" Chase asked.

"That sounds about right," Larwood replied.

"With so many mercenaries, how will there be enough spoils of war to go around?" Chase asked with a stunned expression.

"Even spoils of war aren't guaranteed. I heard that once we reach the front lines, we have to follow the orders of the department of military affairs, so we can't just do as we please," Larwood said with a resigned expression.

"We can't listen to them! We're the ones paying everyone and covering all of the costs, why should we listen to the department of military affairs?" Erwin asked in a disgruntled voice.

"If we act independently and get caught by the department of military affairs, our mercenary legion will be delisted, and we'll be punished as traitors," Larwood said as he turned to Erwin.

"So you're planning to just follow the orders of the department of military affairs? Who knows what kind of menial task they're going to assign to us? What if they order us to defend some completely unimportant citadel? The department of military affairs isn't going to consider the difficulties that small mercenary legions like ours have to deal with," Erwin said.

"I wouldn't even mind having to defend some unimportant citadel, the worst-case scenario would be if we're ordered to go into battle as cannon fodder," Kaiba said with a wry smile.

"I have an idea," Larwood said as he spread open a parchment map that was sitting on the table. "We can follow the regular army to the twin Reydnold Mountains so that we get into the province of Burmen. After that, they'll be sure to continue going north to travel directly to the front lines. However, we'll go east instead and travel up toward the north along the coastline of the Joffan Sea."

"So you're suggesting that we don't go to the front lines in Burmen immediately?" Erwin asked. "How would we benefit from doing that?"

"Think about it: the Skycourt Kingdom's troops are attacking from the Marrod Plain. The citadels on the Marrod Plain definitely won't be able to withstand the assault from the Skycourt Kingdom's army. However, if we go further south to Illingburn Fort." Larwood scratched a mark onto Illingborn Fort on the map with his fingernail as he spoke. "This is a place that the Skycourt Kingdom's troops must travel through, but due to the terrain there, it's far easier to defend the fort than it is to attack it. With Prince Lazaar holding down the fort, there's no way that the Skycourt Kingdom's troops will be able to break through."

Erwin and the others carefully studied the map for a moment to find that this was indeed the case.

"However, with so many mercenaries among the Skycourt Kingdom's ranks, there's no way they're just going to stand by and watch," Larwood continued. "These mercenary legions will definitely head east to the coastline, then travel south along the coastline to plunder for resources."

"Indeed. We're struggling to meet our expenses, and I'm sure that applies to all of the other mercenary legions as well. The regular army of the Skycourt Kingdom has sufficient resources for a long and drawn-out battle, but that's not the case for all of the mercenaries," Chase said.

Larwood nodded in response, then smiled as he said, "Hence, I predict that many of the Skycourt Kingdom's mercenary legions will act on their own to try and support themselves. Hence, if we head north along the coastline, I think we'll definitely be able to reap greater rewards than if we were to follow the regular army straight to Illingburn Fort."

"Once we're loaded up on resources from the Skycourt Kingdom's mercenary legions, we can go to the front lines and just say that we got lost while marching toward Illingburn Fort! I'm sure the department of military affairs wouldn't be able to do anything to us then," Chase said.

"That's a brilliant idea, Larwood!" Kaiba said as he clapped his hands together with glee. "I didn't know that we had a genius strategist among our ranks!"

"There's no way the commander of our mercenary legion wouldn't be a genius strategist!" Chase said with a pleased expression.

"The problem with that plan is that we only have 500 men on our side. Wouldn't it be too dangerous if we pursue this route?" Erwin asked with his brows furrowed. "We won't encounter the Skycourt Kingdom's regular army along the way, but the Skycourt Kingdom's mercenaries that we'll potentially have to face could outnumber us by as many as several dozens to one!"

"There's no helping that, I'm afraid. Risk and reward have always come hand in hand, and fortune always favors the brave. The route suggested by Larwood is the most suitable one for us," Chase countered.

"You're right. If we go with the regular army the entire way, we'll most likely run out of funds and have to disband our mercenary legion eventually, so it looks like this is our only choice," Erwin said with a nod.

"Alright, then it's decided!" Kaiba said as he slammed a palm down onto the table. "Once we pass the twin Reydnold Mountains, we'll separate ourselves from the regular army and travel along the coastline."

"We'll be an independent army of 500! How exciting is that?" Erwin said as an adventurous grin appeared on his face.

"Why limit yourself to 500? After a few battles, perhaps we'll be able to expand our mercenary legion to thousands of troops!" Larwood said with a smile. "As the mercenary legion's deputy commander, you need to be more ambitious."

"Exactly, it's important to have a dream," Chase chimed in.

"Speaking of dreams, I'm gonna go and have some sweet dreams." Erwin looked up at the night sky outside the tent as he spoke. The city gates were most likely already shut at this time of day, so he would have to sleep at the encampment tonight, then return to the manor in the morning.

Unbeknownst to his friends, there was a very troublesome problem that he had to deal with.

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